Access to the urinary bladder of a patient is sometimes necessary to treat a patient or to drain urine from the bladder of a patient. For example, in some instances the normal urinary flow of a patient may be blocked for one or more reasons. Some of these reasons include the swelling of the prostate (benign prostatic hypertrophy), congenital defects of the urinary tract, traumatic disruption of the urethra, obstructions such as kidney stones passed into the urethra, and cancer. When the normal urinary flow of the patient is obstructed a surgically-created connection between the urinary bladder and the skin, sometimes referred to as suprapubic cystostomy, is used to drain urine from the bladder. In a suprapubic cystostomy, medical personnel insert a catheter into the patient to allow urine to drain from the bladder. The catheters used in these procedures have several disadvantages, including their bulky size which leaves the patient with a large catheter protruding from the placement site. In some circumstances, medical personnel may place a Foley catheter into the patient's bladder via the urethra. This is uncomfortable for the patient and can easily become infected unless necessary precautions are taken, for example, drinking sufficient amounts of water, infrequently disconnecting the drainage bag and limiting sexual activity. As sexual activity of the elderly population increases the need to decrease or limit sexual activity in elderly patients has become an increasing concern.
Another instance where access to the urinary bladder of a patient is sometimes necessary is when medical personnel need to perform intra-bladder or intra-urethral procedures, for example, removing bladder stones, performing bladder biopsies, performing retrograde pyelograms, performing cystograms, and ureteral stent placement and removal. In these instances medical personnel often use a cystoscope or alternative devices to provide both visual and mechanical access to the immediate and surrounding procedure area via a patient's urethra. Each time access is necessary, a narrow tube is passed through the urethra into the bladder which allows medical personnel to use a light, camera, and tools to diagnose and treat bladder problems.
Like the use of a Foley catheter, this procedure is uncomfortable for the patient and requires repeating the entire process every time access is necessary.